If can in ruby on rails

Question

In my application I have following code:

@object.start if can? :start, @object

I searched for it and found that app is using cancan gem, but as a beginner I am not getting what this code does exactly. There is no such a function defined with "start" name.

I am totally stuck on this as I am not getting from where to start and what to search.

You might want to read the [documentation of the cancan gem](https://github.com/ryanb/cancan). — spickermann, Jun 29 '15 at 12:37
`can :start, Pipeline, user_id: user.id` this is what written in ability.rb — Vikram, Jun 29 '15 at 12:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 29 '15 at 12:38

I do not know how the application is working, but the can? definitely comes from the cancan gem.

You can specify the permissions in the app/models/ability.rb file.

It simply reads the ability file to determine if a user can perform some action or not. These actions correspond directly to the actions you have defined in the controller class.

Cancan has a great wiki at its github repositiory. Also, the screencast by ryan is an excellent place to start off with.

You can also see the screencast here.

If can in ruby on rails

1 Answers1